José Feliciano : Golden Lady

A touch of rain and sunshine made the flowers grow
Into a lovely smile that's blooming
And it's so clear to me that you're a dream come true

Stevie Wonder is pretty good. I don't think he's quite the genius everyone works him up to be, as he has a lot of output. He has put a lot of song to tape. And while some of it is fantastic ("Sir Duke" for example), a lot of it is just boring, or worse, crappy. "Golden Lady" is not one of those songs. "Golden Lady" is a fantastic love song, nothing fancy but funky and cheerful. It's purely celebratory.

We've discussed José Feliciano in passing earlier in this blog. Aside from penning the ultra-mega-super Christmas hit, "Feliz Navidad", and of course the excellent theme to "Chico and the Man", hit the charts primarily with his covers. He usually brought a nice casual latin groove with his fabulously expressive voice and simple acoustic guitar.

His take on Stevie's "Golden Lady" is no exception. He brings his trademark latin flair to the original, taking a great song to the next level. Where Stevie's tribute to his woman was a laid back affair, José injects a passion that crescendos throughout the entire piece. By the end, there's no doubt how he feels about his woman.

I'm dedicating this one to my woman, with heaven in her eyes.

"Golden Lady" is from José's 1974 release, And the Feeling's Good, which was literally just re-released. My copy came from the most excellent most excellent compilation, As We Travel: Folk Funk Flavours & Ambient Soul, which also gave me the song from American Gypsy and several other amazing tunes.

[You can listen to José Feliciano's cover of Stevie Wonder's "Golden Lady" by navigating to the post "Song098" and clicking or right-clicking on the title or the link.]

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Sparks : Here in Heaven

Sparks is a bizarre band, influenced by both Gilbert and Sullivan style operetta and the glam rock of Gary Glitter and Cheap Trick. The music is varied, expressive and soaring, while remaining firmly grounded in the rock oeuvre, and their wordplay is second-to-none, clever and ironic, with a terrific sense of rhythm.

"Here in Heaven" is a bombastic rocker with a sense of humor.  The song takes the form of a letter, or perhaps a monologue, from a jilted Romeo up in heaven to his Juliet, wondering what happened to her and why she's still down on Earth.  In the first verse, he describes heaven somewhat like one would describe a car dealership waiting room, where "there are lots of things to do" and "it's really very clean".  In the second, he straight up questions Juliet's intentions, wondering if she's had second thoughts and if he's "that sucker in the sky".  It's a great premise, and the lyrical execution is wry perfection, with the band providing the crunching power chords and heavy drums doing their best to anchor brother Russell's trademark soaring falsetto.

"Here in Heaven" is from Sparks' 1974 release, Kimono My House, which is 10 tracks (12 if you get the bonus tracks) of musical brilliance.  My old roommate played this record for me once, and I totally didn't get it.  Then, like pretty much everything else he played for me and I passed on, I later grew to love it.

[You can listen to Sparks' "Here in Heaven" by navigating to the post "Song060" and clicking or right-clicking on the title or the link.]

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Jimmy Smith : I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More Babe

"Well, I got ...
More bounce to the fuckin' bump
And if you want to know why,
It's 'cause I'm motherfuckin' truckin' ..."

I gotta admit, what first excited me about this tune was the opening bars which are sampled pretty plainly by the Beastie Boys on "Professor Booty" from their Check Your Head album. Very few things get me more excited (musically) than catching a sample reference I've never heard before, even one so gratuitous. After that second tom fill, my brain immediately jumps to the Beastie's ingenious lyrics.

From there though, the song opens up into those gorgeous ringing female vocals. With only a hint of lyrics around the the chorus, they carry that sparkly 70's vibe that makes you feel like you've just been swept aboard the Mothership on its way to Studio 54 for some seriously laid back funking. You can just imagine the afro-sporting, rhinestone-jumpsuit-clad backup singers "oooh-ing" and "ahhh-ing" their way through the sessions with the sweeping hand gestures and slow camera pans.

You know what else those vocals remind me of? That Eastern Airlines ride at Disney World back in the 70's, where they showed movies of folks singing and celebrating all around the world over a super-groovy soundtrack. There's something about some of the music from that era that for some reason really brings me back to that ride, ostensibly one of the more boring rides for kids, but I just lo-o-o-oved it. Now we know why.

The track itself is a relaxed, sexy groove, and who would expect anything less from a Barry White cover? The song really belongs to the vocals and the rhythm section, who lay down a nice sustained rolling funk shuffle throughout. Jimmy Smith jazzes around the organ pretty well, though he's buried down in the mix a bit, so you have to really listen carefully to catch his far-out solos.

This tune was featured as a rip from a 45 back in November 2009 at the always great Funky16corners blog, in case you missed it. It's also available on Jimmy Smith's 1974 LP, Black Smith.

[You can listen to Jimmy Smith's "I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More Babe" by navigating to the post "Song008" and clicking or right-clicking on the title or the link.]

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